09-07 "Getting Past "Rational Man/Emotional Woman": How Far Have Research Programs in Happiness and Interpersonal Relations Progressed?"

Orthodox neoclassical economics portrays reason as far more important than emotion, autonomy as more characteristic of economic life than social connection, and, more generally, things culturally and cognitively associated with masculinity as more central than things associated with femininity. Research from contemporary neuroscience suggests that such biases are related to certain automatic processes in the brain, and feminist scholarship suggests ways of getting beyond them. The "happiness" and "interpersonal relations" research programs have made substantial progress in overcoming a number these biases. Analysis from a feminist economics perspective suggests, however, several fronts on which research could most profitably continue.

06-04 "Ethics and International Debt: A View from Feminist Economics,"

Feminist scholars examine not only the gendered impacts of development programs whose design has been influenced by disciplines such as economics, but also the gendered biases that permeate the models and methods of the disciplines themselves. This essay draws on aspects of feminist critiques of economics, philosophy, psychology, law, and finance to analyze the way in which international debt is discussed. Feminist critiques raise serious questions about the rational choice framework that often undergirds scholarly discussions of “agents,” “contract,” “ethics,” and “capital and debt.”

04-01 "Beyond Small-Is-Beautiful: A Buddhist and Feminist Analysis of Ethics and Business"

Buddhist philosophy teaches a thoroughly relational ontology, holding that what really is are relations and processes enfolding out of a common substrate though time. Often, however, attempts to apply Buddhist thinking to economic issues seem to forget this. Corporations and markets are described in the language of substantive structures and impersonal mechanisms, rather than in relational and process terms. This essay argues that a thorough-going Buddhist analysis, supplemented by contemporary insights from feminist theory, yields a relational understanding of business firms and markets that can help move debates about ethics and business beyond issues of scale.

10-02 "Care Ethics and Markets: A View from Feminist Economics"

It is common to think of care ethics and justice ethics as being opposed to each other, and also to think of economic life as being opposed to social life. As a result, it may be hard to see how care ethics, seen as interpersonal, could be applicable to business, when the latter is perceived as asocial. This essay uncovers the origins of these beliefs in unhelpful dualistic cognitive habits and in gender-biases in the development of the discipline of economics. In particular, feminist analysis reveals the mythical nature of both "economic man" and the belief in mechanical "profit maximization." The essay calls for unveiling and recognizing the ethical and connected dimensions that already characterize business life, and including these in thinking about how to create a more humane economy.

05-04 "Rationality and Humanity: A View from Feminist Economics"

Does Rational Choice Theory (RCT) have something important to contribute to the humanities? Jon Elster and others answer affirmatively, arguing that RCT is a powerful tool that will lend clarity and rigor to work in the humanities just as it (presumably) has in economics. This essay examines the disciplinary values according to which the application of RCT in economics has been judged a “success,” and suggests that this value system does not deserve general approbation. Richness and realism must be retained as important values alongside precision and elegance, if anti-scientific dogmatism and absurd conclusions are to be avoided.

09-04 "Sociology, Economics, and Gender: Can Knowledge of the Past Contribute to a Better Future?"

This essay explores the profoundly gendered nature of the split between the disciplines of economics and sociology which took place in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, emphasizing implications for the relatively new field of economic sociology. Drawing on historical documents and feminist studies of science, it investigates the gendered processes underlying the divergence of the disciplines in definition, method, and degree of engagement with social problems. Economic sociology has the potential to heal this disciplinary split, but only if the field is broadened, deepened, and made wiser and more self-reflective through the use of feminist analysis.

09-03 "Economic Writing on the Pressing Problems of the Day: The Roles of Moral Intuition and Methodological Confusion"

Economists are often called on to help address pressing problems of the day, yet many economists are uncomfortable about disclosing the values that they bring to this work. This essay explores how an inadequate understanding of the role of methodology, as related to ethics and human emotions of concern, underlies this reluctance and compromises the quality of economic advice. The tension between caring about the problems, on the one hand, and writing within the existing culture of the discipline, on the other, are illustrated with examples from U.S. policymaking, behavioral economics, and the economics of climate change and global poverty. Potential steps towards a more responsible, "strongly objective," and policy-useful economics are discussed.

07-03 "Economists, Value Judgments, and Climate Change: A View from Feminist Economics"

A number of recent discussions about ethical issues in climate change, as engaged in by economists, have focused on the value of the parameter representing the rate of time preference within models of optimal growth. This essay examines many economists’ antipathy to serious discussion of ethical matters, and suggests that the avoidance of questions of intergenerational equity is related to another set of value judgments concerning the quality and objectivity of economic practice. Using insights from feminist philosophy of science and research on high reliability organizations, this essay argues that a more ethically transparent, real-world-oriented, and flexible economic practice would lead to more strongly objective, reliable, and useful knowledge.

03-11 "Clocks, Creation, and Clarity: Insights on Ethics and Economics from a Feminist Perspective"

This essay discusses the origins, biases, and effects on contemporary discussions of economics and ethics of the unexamined use of the metaphor “an economy is a machine.” The neoliberal view that the self-regulated workings of free markets should be kept free of impediments is based on this metaphor. Many of the critiques of capitalist systems are, as well. The belief that economists simply uncover universal “laws of motion” of economies, however, is shown to be based on a variety of rationalist thinking that—while widely held—is inadequate for explaining lived human experience. Feminist scholarship in philosophy of science and economics has brought to light some of the biases that have supported the mechanistic worldview. By structuring thought and language in dualistic categories such that alternatives to a mechanistic worldview are labeled as “soft,” the mechanistic view maintains some of its power by seeming “masculine” and “tough.” Possible alternatives to the “an economy is a machine” metaphor are discussed in their relation to developments in philosophy, psychology, and the natural sciences. The essay argues that metaphors such as “an economy is a creative process” and “an economy is an organism” are both intellectually defensible as guides to scientific inquiry and provide a richer ground for moral imagination.

10-03 "The Relational Economy: A Buddhist and Feminist Analysis"

Writings on the topic of Buddhism and economics seem to be characterized by two very different attitudes towards economic life. The first, drawing from historical Buddhist teachings in primarily pre-industrial contexts, takes a largely positive view of commerce. The second, in which a modern influence is considerably more apparent, is suspicious of economics at a "systemic" level, and takes an antagonistic stance towards contemporary corporations and markets. This essay argues that the latter view is based on an unhelpful assimilation of a modern Western belief - the belief that economic systems are non-relational - and proposes a richer understanding.